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IBM to buy data analytics giant SPSS for $1.2bn

by Noelle McElhatton, marketingdirectmag.co.uk 28-Jul-09, 15:22

LONDON - IBM is to acquire data mining company SPSS, in a $1.2bn all-cash deal intended to bolster its analytic services.

The $50-per-share merger, which has yet to gain SPSS shareholder approval, is part of IBM’s strategy to focus on strategic consulting.

In buying SPSS IBM gains specialised software and expertise in data collection, predictive analysis and statistical modelling.

The deal is one of the largest ever acquisitions in database marketing technology.

IBM already licenses SPSS technology and has shifted more resources into the business-analytics area in recent months.

With this acquisition, we are extending our capabilities around a new level of analytics that not only provides clients with greater insight - but true foresight, Ambuj Goyal, IBM’S general manager of information management, said in a statement.

SPSS’s shares closed at $35.09 on Monday and surged 14 per cent in pre-market trading on Tuesday. Shares of IBM slipped by 0.88 per cent to $116.60.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.